It was still running since it was bought more than 20 years ago. During a long time, it was the web, database and service server as well as desktop computer of the IT manager of the Physics Departement of the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology. Latest services were removed this summer so that I could take it home... tadaaa ! It was only moved 2-3 times, and not powered off a lot more often, so it is in particularly good shape. Plastics are almost like new. Door is fully functional, with all hinges intact.

The Indigo is the very first Silicon Graphics I ever saw, in the mid-90's, when I visited the ECAL, Lausanne's Art School, more specifically the Infography department. I remember people were running TDI Explore on them. Unfortunately, mine is only equipped with the Entry graphic board. Who knows, I may upgrade it later, just for fun !

It is not connected to the network for the moment, so here is the basic hardware information and some pictures. I'll update with hinv and gfxinfo outputs later on.

In case of the first R4000 SGIs, the tech guys referred to the CPU by it's external frequency (50MHz), the marketing folks went with the highest number (100MHz). In the end, everybody went with the highest number, but the PROM still mentions the external frequency. Nothing to worry about.

These days with multi-GHz CPUs, the multiplier is of course much higher than 2 or 3x.

PS: nice looking Indigo!

To accentuate the special identity of the IRIS 4D/70, Silicon Graphics' designers selected a new color palette. The machine's coating blends dark grey, raspberry and beige colors into a pleasing harmony. (IRIS 4D/70 Superworkstation Technical Report)

I dont really know, but I think it is still well renowned. At least it is still very active and you can very often hear news about it in the local radios.The people I knew actually left a long time ago. It was mainly students and the previous IT manager. This guy helped me find Irix 3.0.2 QIC tapes when I was searching for media to reinstall the OS on my very first Silicon Graphics, a 4D/70GT.

I've just disassembled the box to give it a shower (only the plastics parts, don't worry). One screw to tight them all and in the shower to bring them... and it's done ! So well built... and the plastics is much more robust than later models. Everything is still in perfect shape and working order after 20 years. Times have changed ! Things were built to last...

No problem. Actually I didn't study there, but some kilometers away; some more scientific studies...Yes, the machine is very clean now, inside and outside. I'll try to take better pictures in the next days, but will not be very often at home. Nothing is broken and once I removed the dust from the power supply it became very quiet. Only my R5k O2 does better.

On the OS side, it is for the moment running 6.5.22, but is very slow. I'll try 6.2 and maybe even a fresh install of 5.3 (I also still have the original harddisk, which is running fine besides the noise: 1 inch Conner disk 540Mo).

BetXen wrote:On the OS side, it is for the moment running 6.5.22, but is very slow.

If you want to stick with 6.5.22, upgrade your RAM! The R4K Indigo can handle up to 384MB, and (in my experience) anything under 128MB is just too little for 6.5.x. 192MB and up is more realistic for actual use. I was quite pleased with the performance boost I got on my Indigo2 when going from 64MB to 320MB. (I realize it's not the same machine, but still....)

Of course, if you prefer the older IRIX versions anyway, then there's probably no need to upgrade RAM.

BetXen wrote:On the OS side, it is for the moment running 6.5.22, but is very slow.

If you want to stick with 6.5.22, upgrade your RAM!

Have to agree with this ... when I had an Indigo (1) it was used next to an IBM Z-pro. The Z-Pro was dual Pentium Pro @ 240 mhz. The Indigo was a little slower at compute jobs but faster at graphics. Both were very usable. The Indigo was loaded on RAM, running 6.5 (but before 22 came out, probably about 14 ?)